Pages

Monday, September 21, 2009

Two old ladies who can hardly believe they've made it to the ripe old age of 10. Where did all the years go? Of course, for you and I this is not old, but for a dog it's almost forever. It's almost a lifetime. Lucy and Ethel can't understand why their bodies have been slowing down as time passes more quicky, and how life ever became a small kennel and a concrete floor.

Slowly they've been losing everything.

First it was the speed and strength in their bodies.... ever so slightly, a gradual thing barely noticed. Next it was the clearness in their eyes... slowly filling with clouds and dreams. And then it was the person. And this is the loss that hurt the most. They still remember the voice, and the arms, and the words. And the exact moment their person left for good, and they wonder... will he come back for us?

Lucy and Ethel would look for each other because it's all they had left. All that was familar. They held onto moments... which were shorter then they realized. Even though they seemed to sense time was almost up... that they had been there too long, and the person wasn't coming back. Little by little dogs would disappear. They already knew that sometimes loss never ends, and the next thing they would lose would be each other.

One day Lucy was gone.

Ethel looked for her. And that night she laid on the concrete floor, and wondered why everything disappears. The next day someone came. They didn't pass by her cage . The door opened, they touched her fur and spoke warmly, and then they walked outside of the shelter and left....

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

She'd rather sit in your lap and avoid a walk. No dog parks. No play dates.... just quiet, and gentle moments left. There was a time when she was lovely, and her owner proudly displayed her like rare china. But now she's old, her fur sparse, skin rough and thickened like the hide of an elephant.

Someone with a kind heart saw her wizened little face and just wanted her to have more time and a loving home for the last moments of her life. The person offered to take her if no one else would. When I called to check I was told the little dog was scheduled for euthanasia. They couldn't find her. After searching, she was found. So I asked the supervisor to please hold her. He put in an IP for me, I said I'd pick her up the next day... There was a home that wanted her.... someone was interested... someone cared....

I planned to pick her up after work.... at around 3:00. I had everything ready.... I had pulled out the small crate, and picked out a little blanket. It was one of my softest.... pink with little black puppy paws.... I figured pink for a little girl. At noon her new mom-to-becalled to check on her. She was told that she had been euthanized.

So now I'm holding this little blanket to my face and I can't stop crying. I know it sounds silly. Some people would say it's only a dog, and it's only a little old dog at that... she would have died anyway....

But she still had time, and someone that would have loved her until the very end.